Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, Dorsey Hager, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the recent visit from Tom Perez. Hager also discussed the Town Hall meeting Perez hosted and the progress of a few megaprojects in Central Ohio.
Tom Perez, Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden, recently visited Ironworkers Local 172’s new training center in the Columbus area. Hager talked about how Perez wanted to see how the apprenticeship program operated. He also discussed Charles Straley, one of many success stories from the Building Futures Apprenticeship Readiness Program. As the trades seek more members, and the Biden Administration seeks to grow the middle class, programs like Building Futures are essential for the future, Hager said.
While Perez was in Columbus, he also held a Town Hall meeting. The event featured County Commissioner Erica Crawley and Mayor Andrew J. Ginther as moderators. The meeting helped promote the Building Futures and Driving Futures Apprenticeship Programs. Throughout the program, the group shared several of the success stories from the Apprenticeship Readiness Programs in Columbus and the work to lift workers into the middle class.
The Intel plant has begun foundation work, as they are pouring concrete to lay out the pads needed before vertical construction begins. Hager predicts that work will speed up after the winter, around March. That’s when they’ll ramp up to around 7,000 workers by the summer at that site. The Amazon data center site in New Albany is predicted to be around 40 buildings being built at around $7.9 billion in work. The Meta site looks to be breaking ground around the beginning of November, and Hager believes that site will give around 1,500 union members work for the next two to three years.
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America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, American Alliance for Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North America, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Survey and Ballot Systems, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
